A New Year of Little Things

Happy New Year! We are now a week into 2016, and finally back into a normal routine after the welcomed, yet sometimes frazzled holiday season.

I’m not the type of person who gets excited about January 1. I see it as nothing more than the day after New Year’s Eve. There are still those who make New Year’s resolutions; for some these will be achieved, for most people they will fail to meet them. I still know people who make resolutions, but I tend not to give them too much credit because their list of desired changes and goals seem so out of character for them. I often wonder to myself, ‘Why are you wanting to make these changes now, why weren’t they goals and resolutions a week or two ago?’

For the third New Year in a row, I’ve chosen to bypass resolutions and instead choose a word that will be my personal theme for the year. Feel free to visit this link to the One Word page on my blog to read more about my chosen word: Grace.

When it comes to making important and sometimes necessary changes in our lives, let’s not wait for specific dates on our calendars dictated by cultural holidays and social expectations. You may not have made a list of resolutions on January 1, and that is alright. Maybe you will wake up one day in a few months and realize that there are certain changes you’d like to make. Change doesn’t have to be something negative. Maybe you’d like to take up a sport, or recreational activity. Maybe you want to finally learn how to drive or finally finish renovating an area in your house. The options and possibilities are endless when we consider making changes that bring us joy and happiness.

I began 2016 without the excruciating physical pain that had returned periodically throughout 2015. Two months of physiotherapy was a great help in decreasing my pain; now I am in the maintenance stage. What I learned from this round of physiotherapy sessions was the importance of being consistent with the so-called “little things”. It was the simple, yet important exercises that helped to ease the pain and strengthen my muscles. The movements seemed so minor at first I felt stupid doing them, it almost felt like a waste of time; but within a few short sessions I noticed a difference. I made sure I completed these “little things” each day and eventually my body felt different. 10- 15 minutes a day of doing these various exercises helped to strengthen my muscles, decrease pain, and return feeling to my right side.

If you want to see changes in your life and in yourself during 2016, there is only one way to do so: commit to the little things. It’s those things that we take for granted, or don’t think are important that often make a difference. Small things are part of the big picture.

QUESTION and ACTIONS:

What are some “little things” in your life that you could start doing, or stop doing that would help you make changes in your life?

Can you think of past experiences where small changes made a difference for you?